A Violet Sky It means a turbulent night it means there’s no asking God to level us outwe’ve gone so far off the charts and he’s gone dark on us This happened before in Sodom and Gomorrahback then the sky was lava redthey knew it would all go to shitwe dig up their stone entombed […]
Andy Eycott – Born of the earth
Born of the earth He showed me how to use a trowel,eager shadow of me, belt high. The ancient wood of the handleworn, parched to splitting, ginger rust on the tangblack earth on the blade. I dropped seed after seedinto individual graves. With a squeeze or two of fine mistI tamped down the soil, soft […]
Wendy Freborg – Three Poems
INDOLENT It’s not a word you want to hear at a performance review or at your child’s school but in a doctor’s office, describing your lymphoma, “Indolent” sounds strangely reassuring. Centenarian She buried her husband a generation ago, Her brother and sister ten years before. There were five at her last […]
Tenarevyč – F43.1
F43.1 all hands and a razor bent face round inside a mirror inside the eyes every other morning flustered flaccid and gaunt head chopped off by the edge of throat and uniform fit for choking only chattering always chattering to myself whilst shaving sharing only obscenities with other soldiers pulling too tight on the skin […]
How to Get Published in a Literary Magazine
The below is the transcript of a talk given on the Wisdom app. You can listen to it on the Wisdom website or app here. It can also be found on the Speaking Cat podcast. Transcript Hey everybody, as my first proper talk today, I thought let’s get right into it. I’ve got my […]
Chad W. Lutz – in a jar with some grass
in a jar with some grass Lion’s Club AwardsLittle League All-Star TeamsHonorable Mentions that timeyou graduatedbest in DARE the other timeyou wroteBill Clinton Bachelor’s DegreeMaster’s DegreeHigh School Diploma that marathon recordyou still hold your first published book live with your parents ADVANTAGE! drive a fuel-efficient car ADVANTAGE! read some books on Gendertravel to the Smokey […]
D. Walsh Gilbert – open me carefully
open me carefully after woman diving underwater with white dress, Engin Akyurt (Turkey) 2012 Although you hide in the ebb and flowof the pale tide when the moon has set, […]
Thomas Zimmerman – Fellow Travelers
Fellow Travelers These sonnets, footnotes to the memoirs weconstruct in dreams, sustain us on the path,however brambled, stony, wind-lashed, bee-loud, wild-flowered it might be. We do the math:five beats, ten syllables, for fourteen lines.It’s walking, breathing, chanting, tapping beatson fingers or inside the mind, cool pinesor sun-struck eagles overhead, the bleatsof sheep, the cricket-chirp for […]
Robert Halleck – Bourbon Dark Sea
Bourbon Dark Sea I ignore the signthat says the beach closesat sunset as I sit on a rock with a half bottleof ginger ale toppedwith bourbon. Eveningmist cut by passing carlights gives a lambentglow to a sea rising andfalling in gentle waves.Tonight is mine. I amignoring all signs: noalcohol, no dogs, nofires. My shepherd isshadowed […]
Susie Gharib – Glaswegian Phantoms
Glaswegian Phantoms I stand beneath the Autumn treethat shades the entrance to our apartmented buildingand see the spires of a city across the seas. My tongue is numb with the bitterness of years.A breeze that is severing agitated leavesreshuffles the order of my inner visions. I breathe. I roam those roads and matted streets.No tongues […]